The Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat has issued a social media advisory for the state’s IAS and IPS officers in light of the fake profile incident of IPS Hasmukh Patel.

Advisory to tackle looming cyber threat to officers: DGP

After perpetrators created a fake Facebook profile of IPS Hasmukh Patel, Gujarat’s DGP, Dr Shamsher Singh, issued an advisory for the state’s IAS, IPS, and other government officers on Sept 13 regarding their personal social media accounts.

The advisory mentions several practices to be undertaken by the officers in order to tackle the looming cyber security threats.

The DGP, Dr Shamsher Singh, stated, “Nowadays, citizens and government employees use social media on a large scale. But with this, the incidents of cybercrime have also increased. Fake profiles of IAS, IPS, and other officers and (govt) employees are being created by perpetrators on social media platforms. This advisory has been issued to prevent such criminal activities.”

DGP Dr Shamsher Singh’s advisory

Officers are advised to get their personal social media profiles verified with a blue tick, which would authenticate them, and fake profiles could be identified.

They are also advised to amp up their privacy protocols by registering with strong passwords, which should be changed at intervals. Profiles on different platforms are to be registered with different passwords.

Follow or friend requests on their social media accounts should be cross-checked before accepting, and engaging with suspicious accounts should be avoided.

The IPS Hasmukh Patel case

Recently, a fake Facebook profile of Gujarat police officer and Gujarat Subordinate Service Selection Board (GSSSB) chief IPS Hasmukh Patel surfaced, for which a complaint had been registered with the police on Sept 9.

Following this, the IPS officer posted on X regarding this fake profile.

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